Showerthought: A park ranger in Sedona told me rocks are basically time machines.

I was looking at the red sandstone layers and said they must be old, but she pointed out a single layer took about 10,000 years to form. It made me realize I used to just see a pretty rock, not a whole slow story. Do you have a spot that makes you think about deep time like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

sarah_patel251d ago

That idea of a single layer taking 10,000 years to form really got me. It makes you feel small in a good way. For me, it's standing on a pebble beach. I try to picture the journey of just one smooth stone, all the grinding and tumbling over centuries to get that shape. Does that kind of thing ever hit you when you're just going about your day, like seeing a cut in a hillside from the road?

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mila_campbell251d ago

Yeah, the pebble beach thing. I get that. I was hiking last fall and saw a split boulder full of these perfect, round holes. Like giant marbles were just pressed into it. Stood there forever trying to figure out what made them. Water dripping for a million years, I guess.

taylor.sean1d ago

Wait, 10,000 years for one layer? That's actually insane to picture. I mean, that's longer than all of recorded human history just for a stripe of dirt. It does make you feel like a tiny blip.